US auto sales and market share for May 2004
According to a recent report by Reuters, U.S. light vehicle sales totals and market share listed for May are as per the following. The May results are compared with previous year same month results and year-to-date figures with previous year-same period results. Percent changes are based on the daily sales rate.
May 2004 May 2003 % CHG
Total Industry 1'629'750 1'576'180 +7.4%
Domestic Car 539'614 533'549 +5.0%
Domestic Truck 790'390 750'119 +9.4%
Import Car 204'062 193'289 +9.6%
Import Truck 95'684 99'223 +0.1%
Dom+Imp Car 743'676 726'838 +6.3%
Dom+Imp Truck 886'074 849'342 +8.3%
Dom Vehicles 1'330'004 1'283'668 +7.6%
Imp Vehicles 299'746 292'512 +6.4%
Year to date Prev. Year % CHG
Total Industry 6'963'091 6'749'263 +3.2%
Domestic Car 2'289'647 2'312'469 -1.0%
Domestic Truck 3'323'762 3'111'295 +6.8%
Import Car 873'177 882'722 -1.1%
Import Truck 476'505 442'777 +7.6%
Dom+Imp Car 3'162'824 3'195'191 -1.0%
Dom+Imp Truck 3'800'267 3'554'072 +6.9%
Dom Vehicles 5'613'409 5'423'764 +3.5%
Imp Vehicles 1'349'682 1'325'499 +1.8%
Seasonally adjusted annual rate (Millions):
May 2004 May 2003
Vehicles 17.83 Share 16.32 Share
Dom. Car 5.69 31.9% 5.38 33.0%
Dom. Truck 8.70 48.8% 7.83 48.0%
Imp. Car 2.34 13.1% 2.07 12.7%
Imp. Truck 1.09 6.1% 1.04 6.4%
Despite concerns regarding high gasoline prices, US consumers' interest especially for gas-guzzling vehicles continued last month.
Americans bought 3% more vehicles y-o-y, making May the best sales month in nine months. A major part of the sales consisted of popular four-wheel-drives, high mileage pickups and off-road sport utility vehicles.
General Motors Corp said a double-digit surge in demand for its trucks increased its May sales by almost 3% compared with 2003.
Toyota had its best US sales month in 47 years and Chrysler Group sales in May were up 1.3% y-o-y.
Honda vehicles sales increased by 2.0% over a year ago. Ford, however, experienced a decrease of 3% in its sales in May.